Rick and Morty has been a staple of the adult animated series circuit since the first episode aired on Cartoon Network’s late-night Adult Swim on December 2, 2013. The show centers on a mad scientist named Rick Sanchez, a.k.a. “The Rickest Rick (Rick Prime)” or “The Smartest Man in the Universe.”
Rick is a brilliant misanthrope whose sidekick is his young grandson, the perpetually-worried Morty Smith. They live with Rick’s daughter/Morty’s mom, Beth (voiced by Sarah Chalke), her husband Jerry (Chris Parnell), and sister Summer (Spencer Grammer). For the first six seasons, series co-creator Justin Roiland voiced both Rick and Morty, but he was replaced by Ian Cardoni as Rick and Harry Belden as Morty in 2023 after he was accused of domestic violence and predatory behavior.
Together, Rick and Morty use Rick’s flying saucer to travel between dimensions and have ridiculous, hilarious adventures. The series has already been renewed for ten full seasons, though only seven have aired at the time of this writing. Read on to see our top 10 favorite episodes to date, ranked from the 10th best to our absolute favorite.
Rixty Minutes (Season 1, episode 8)
Air date: March 17, 2014
Complaining that there’s nothing good on TV, Rick hacks the cable box to watch shows from infinite realities. Jerry, Beth, and Summer all want to see what their own alternate realities might look like, so Rick gives them a pair of interdimensional goggles.
At first, they like what they see (Jerry is hanging out with Johnny Depp and Beth is a doctor instead of a veterinarian), but things turn dark when Summer realizes she’s not in most of the realities they explore. Rick convinces her not to run away from home with one of the best lines in the entire series: “Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody’s gonna die … Come watch TV?”
The Vat of Acid (Season 4, episode 8)
Air date: May 17, 2020
Sometimes the only solution is to jump into a vat of acid! This episode finds Rick and Morty hiding out from alien gangsters by faking their own deaths in a vat of fake acid. Things go awry when the gangsters discover their hiding spot, and later Morty convinces Rick to create a “save point” so they can make better escapes in the future. Naturally, that plan ultimately works against Morty as well, leaving them no other option than to once again jump into a vat of fake acid.
Mortyplicity (Season 5, episode 2)
Air date: June 27, 2021
Rick and the Smiths are murdered by alien squids one morning, but it’s okay because it turns out they were just robotic versions of themselves. A little digging uncovers the truth: all of the Ricks and Smiths are decoys who are creating even more decoys of themselves, leaving everyone confused about who is who. Relatable!
The Ricks Must Be Crazy (Season 2, episode 6)
Air date: August 30, 2015
The title of this episode is a throwback to the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. It begins when Rick and Morty’s car breaks down, leading them to shrink themselves down to go inside the car battery to fix it. Inside, Morty is shocked to see a tiny microverse created by a tiny scientist called Zeep Xanflorp. Rick and Morty must try to escape Zeep’s clutches by any means possible.
Total Rickall (Season 2, episode 4)
Air date: August 16, 2015
This episode is a good old-fashioned “clip show” featuring flashback scenes (purportedly) from past episodes. The episode introduces the character of Mr. Poopybutthole, a character who recurs in future episodes and specials. The action of the episodes centers on a parasitic infestation that implants fake memories into people’s heads. Jerry is contacted by a man who claims to be his brother, but he’s quickly exposed as a parasite because … drumroll please … Jerry doesn’t have a brother!
The Rickshank Rickdemption (Season 3, episode 1)
Air date: April 1, 2017
This episode aired on April Fool’s Day, so Adult Swim aired it every half hour from 8 p.m. until 12 a.m. It begins while Rick is incarcerated at the Galactic Federation’s prison and trying to make an escape. The Smith family misses him so much that Summer digs up Rick’s remains, which were placed in the backyard in a previous episode. Later, Morty brings Summer to another dimension but discovers it’s now a wasteland inhabited by monsters.
Rick Potion #9 (Season 1, episode 6)
Air date: January 27, 2014
Morty has a crush on a girl named Jessica, so on the night of the annual Flu Season Dance he asks Rick to make him a love potion. Rick gives it to Jessica without realizing she already has the flu, so she spreads not just the virus but the love serum to the entire planet. Consequently, everyone in the world (except for his family) falls in love with Morty, which isn’t nearly as much fun for him as it sounds!
Get Schwifty (Season 2, episode 5)
Air date: August 23, 2015
Ice-T makes an appearance in this episode! It begins when a giant alien head called a Cromulon appears in the sky and demands to hear a totally original new song. Rick and Morty create a song called “Get Schwifty” on the fly before being forced into an intergalactic talent show. Ice-T plays himself (or does heeee?) as the only musician to make it out of that year’s Grammy Awards ceremony alive.
The Ricklantis Mixup (Season 3, episode 7)
Air date: September 10, 2017
Rick and Morty travel to Atlantis, where they encounter a secret interdimensional society called the Citadel that’s made up entirely by Rick and Mortys from other realities. Many fans consider this to be the best episode ever, and it raked in about 2.4 million viewers when it premiered.
Pickle Rick (Season 3, episode 3)
Air date: August 6, 2017
And finally … the best of the best! Pickle Rick became a much-loved meme after this episode landed, and it’s still around years later. In this episode Rick really doesn’t want to go to family therapy, so he turns himself into a pickle to get out of it. Unfortunately he ends up in the sewer, where he has to fight for his life.
“I’m a pickle, Morty!” (What? We had to say it!) Now you can catch up on all of your favorite Rick and Morty episodes, because all seven seasons are streaming on both Max and Hulu.
(featured image: Adult Swim)
